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Saturday, March 31, 2012

"In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any." - Federalist Papers, No. 15

It’s been more than three years since Barack Obama was elected on a pledge to “transform” America. Two of the industries in his sights were health care and energy. Whether he will get to realize his vision of a government-managed health care system depends now on the Supreme Court, which will decide, probably in June, whether Obamacare is constitutional.

That leaves energy on the president’s to-do list. It is no easy thing to pin down his position on energy matters, since he gathers disparate policies under the banner of “all of the above”—not exactly a slogan that reflects a willingness to make tough choices. Add to that his confession (to Russia’s current president) that he will have more “flexibility” after the election, and one must be careful in accepting his election year policy statements.

So this past week we have the president declaring that he would like to leave office with America on the road to sharply reducing its use of fossil fuels—oil, coal, natural gas—and relying more heavily on wind, solar, and other renewable sources of energy, including most recently algae. This brings roars of approval from his environmental constituency, and from companies producing—or trying to produce—green energy, companies in which Obama campaign contributors often feature and are heavily dependent on taxpayer subsidies.

Friday, March 30, 2012

“If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

-Candidate Barack Obama, 2008.

Well, we can’t say we weren’t warned. This week, the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency released a set of proposed rules designed to target greenhouse gas emissions. If enacted, these rules would virtually destroy the coal industry - just as President Obama once promised he would do.

Under the proposed rules, new power plants will be required to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity; coal plants average 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt. As Jordan Weissmann writes for theAtlantic, “Natural gas plants already meet this requirement. But if a utility wants to burn coal for electricity, it will need to install carbon capture technology - and that’s really expensive.”

"For years, American manufacturers have faced one of the highest tax rates in the world. We want to reduce that by over 20%. We want to drop the rate, particularly, for high-tech manufacturers like you, Mr. President, even further than the 20%," Vice President Joe Biden said at a manufacturing plant in Davenport, Iowa this week.

"We want to create (what's called) a global minimum tax, because American taxpayers shouldn't be providing a larger subsidy for investing abroad than investing at home," Biden said at a campaign event.

The parents of two British students murdered in Florida have criticised President Barack Obama for his lack of compassion over their son's deaths.

His failure to respond to three letters sent to the White House was because there was no "political value" and not worthy of a few minutes of his time.

They spoke out as teenager Shawn Tyson began a life sentence after being found guilty of the murder of James Cooper and James Kouzaris last April.
The 17 year old, who shot the men as they begged for their lives, will die in prison.

His conviction of first degree murder carries an mandatory life sentence without the chance of parole.

The powerfully built teen even looked bored as emotional DVD presentations about the dead men prepared by their grieving parents were shown in court.

The Department Of Homeland Security Is Buying 450 Million New Bullets Eloise Lee The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office is getting an "indefinite delivery" of an "indefinite quantity" of .40 caliber bullets from defense contractor ATK. U.S. agents will receive a maximum of 450 million rounds over five years, according to a press release on the deal. The high performance HST bullets are designed for law enforcement and ATK says they offer "optimum penetration for terminal performance." This refers to the the bullet's hollow-point tip that passes through barriers without getting warped out of shape. We've also learned that the Department has an open bid for a stockpile of rifle ammo. Listed on the federal business opportunities network, they're looking for up to 175 million rounds of .233 caliber ammo to be exact. The 223 is almost exactly the same round used by NATO forces, the 5.56 x 45mm. The deadline for earlier this month was extended because the right contractor just hadn't come along. Looks like the Department of Homeland Security means business. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-immigration-agents-are-loading-up-on-as-many-as-450-million-new-rounds-of-ammo-2012-3#ixzz1qYRG8CoL

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a linchpin as a pin “that serves to hold together parts or elements that exist or function as a unit.” Such pins are quite common on axles of automobiles and other vehicles, where they literally hold a nut in place behind the hub and thereby keep the wheels from flying off.

If you’ve never thought about the value of a linchpin, imagine driving down the road at 70 mph with one missing from the hub behind one of the front wheels. After hitting the right bump in the road or making a sufficient number of turns to jar things loose, you would find yourself in a car with three wheels: which means you could also find yourself injured or killed in a terrible accident, at worst, or stranded on the side of the road, at the least. Suffice it to say, linchpins are important.

Not surprisingly, it has been said that the Second Amendment is the linchpin of the Bill of Rights. In other words, if removed, the remaining amendments might stand for a time or they might fall suddenly beside it: either way, they certainly will fall.

Our Founding Fathers knew this, and that’s why they made it crystal clear that the right to keep and bear arms is the one right that is necessary to the security of a free state:

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

In short, what this means is that if there’s no Second Amendment, the wheels fly off: freedom as we’ve known it in this country comes crashing to the ground and this great experiment in liberty is over.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., endorsed Mitt Romney for president Wednesday night on Fox News' "Hannity," saying Romney offers "a very clear alternative" to President Obama's vision for the future of the country.

Rubio, a young, first-termer who has been discussed as a possible vice presidential candidate, criticized talk of a fight for the Republican nomination on the convention floor, a possibility that is keeping alive the campaigns of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

Romney has "earned this nomination," Rubio said, though he again shot down questions about whether he would accept any offers of a spot on the ticket.

"I don't believe I'm going to be asked to be the vice presidential nominee," he said, adding it's not something he wants.

The endorsement comes after another big-name in Florida politics, former Gov. Jeb Bush, threw his support behind Romney, and former President George H.W. Bush is expected to officially endorse Romney on Thursday.

Romney has a comfortable lead in the delegate count, though Santorum has been able to pick up wins in several recent state contests, including Louisiana on Saturday.

The Bowles-Simpson deficit-reduction plan went down to a crushing defeat in the House late Wednesday night in a vote that damages the one bipartisan proposal that just a few months ago had seemed like a possible solution to the country’s debt woes.

The 382-38 defeat, with just 16 Republicans and 22 Democrats voting for it, marks a bad end to what began nearly two years ago, when President Obama tapped former White House Chief of StaffErskine Bowles, a Democrat, and former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, to lead a deficit-reduction committee.

Their report has popped up in every deficit discussion since then, but had never gotten a vote in either chamber until this week, when opponents prevailed.

"To hold that Congress has general police power would be to hold that it may
accomplish objects not intrusted to the general government, and to defeat the
operation of the 10th Amendment, declaring that 'the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are
reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.' "

-- Justice Melville Fuller
(1833-1910) Chief Justice of the United States (1888-1910)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The folks who are getting free stuff, don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.

The folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop, and the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!

Now... The people who are forcing the people to pay for the free stuff have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.

So... The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff, and giving them the free stuff in the first place.

We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.

Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them. Thomas Jefferson said it best: "The democracy (Republic) will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 235 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff. We have one chance to change that ? On Nov 6th, 2012. Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we know it.

ELECTION 2012 IS COMING
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!

Tuesday's two hours of Supreme Court oral arguments on ObamaCare's individual mandate were rough-going for the government and its assertions of unlimited federal power. Several Justices are clearly taking seriously the Constitution's structural checks and balances that are intended to protect individual liberty.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece is criticizing the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson for politicizing the Trayvon Martin shooting and leveraging racial tensions to rile up Americans.

Conservative activist Dr. Alveda King, now the director of African-American outreach at Priests for Life and the founder of King For America, said she hopes Sharpton and Jackson stop “stirring up the people without positive solutions” in Sanford, Fla., and elsewhere in the U.S.

“I would believe that, by stirring up all of the emotions and reactions, I wanted to encourage them to remember the man that they say that they followed, to remember that his message was nonviolence and very loving,” King told The Daily Caller, referencing her late uncle. She added that she wanted to encourage Jackson and Sharpton “to talk about nonviolence and not to incite people with that race card that they are very good at playing.”

“Nonviolence was a very important part of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,” she added. “So, we want to encourage people to be nonviolent in their responses, to be thorough in their research and that justice must be done…We want justice to come, but we want nonviolent responses to this really tragic and terrible incident.”

Barack Obama’s statement that the death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy that cries out for a more thorough investigation was the right and necessary thing to say.

But it fell far short of what was needed: a presidential call for a halt to the rhetoric that is stirring up racial rage and inflaming the nation. The incendiary language being deployed is both divisive and dangerous.

Addressing the Sanford, Fla., incident, black Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan tweeted: “Where there is no justice, there will be no peace. Soon, and very soon, the law of retaliation may … be applied.”

The New Black Panther Party has issued a “Wanted Dead or Alive” poster featuring the face of George Zimmerman, the man who shot Martin, and printed up a flier saying Martin was “murdered in cold blood.”

When Panther leader Mikhail Muhammad was asked if this could ignite an explosive situation that has already seen death threats drive Zimmerman and his father from their homes, Muhammad cursed and said Zimmerman “should be fearful for his life.”

Demanding “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” the Black Panther leader offered $10,000 for Zimmerman’s capture and called for 5,000 black men to run him down.

“If the government won’t do the job, we’ll do it,” he warned.

Spike Lee helpfully tweeted Zimmerman’s home address.

Friends say Zimmerman fears for his life. One man has already been arrested for threatening to kill Bill Lee, the Sanford police chief who has stepped down and turned the investigation over to the state, the Justice Department, the FBI and a special prosecutor.

Returning from Geneva, Jesse Jackson, too, headed for Sanford, saying: “Blacks are under attack. … Targeting, arresting, convicting blacks and ultimately killing us is big business.” On arrival, Jackson said Trayvon Martin was a “kid shot down in cold blood by a vigilante.”

The Supreme Court's conservative justices said Wednesday they are prepared to strike down President Obama’s healthcare law entirely.

Picking up where they left off Tuesday, the conservatives said they thought a decision striking down the law's controversial individual mandate to purchase health insurance means the whole statute should fall with it.

The court’s conservatives sounded as though they had determined for themselves that the 2,700-page measure must be declared unconstitutional.

"One way or another, Congress will have to revisit it in toto," said Justice Antonin Scalia.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.' [10th Amendment] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."

WASHINGTON (AP) - The fate of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was cast into deeper jeopardy Tuesday as the Supreme Court's conservative justices sharply and repeatedly questioned its core requirement that virtually every American carry insurance. The court will now take up whether any remnant of the historic law can survive if that linchpin fails. The justices' questions in Tuesday's oral arguments signal trouble for the health care law!

Today EPA issued the death certificate for coal burning power plants with its new carbon dioxide emission rule. Although it only applies tones power plants, the Sierra Club has already said it will sue the agency to make the rules applicable to existing plants. Environmental Nazi's also say they will go after the process of extracting natural gas from shale next!

By DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press – 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration forged ahead on Tuesday with the first-ever limits on heat-trapping pollution from new power plants, ignoring protests from industry and from Republicans who have said the regulation will raise electricity prices and kill off coal, the dominant U.S. energy source.
But the proposal also fell short of environmentalists' hopes because it goes easier than it could have on coal-fired power, one of the largest sources of the gases blamed for global warming.
"Right now, there are no limits to the amount of carbon pollution that future power plants will be able to put into our skies — and the health and economic threats of a changing climate continue to grow," said Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Older coal-fired power plants have already been shutting down across the country, thanks to low natural gas prices, demand from China driving up coal's price and weaker demand for electricity.
Regulations from the EPA to control pollution blowing downwind and toxic emissions from power plants have also helped push some into retirement, causing Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail to claim the agency will cause blackouts. Numerous studies and an AP survey of power plant operators have shown that is not the case.
The proposed rule will not apply to existing power plants or new ones built in the next year. It will also give future coal-fired power plants years to meet the standard, because it will eventually require that carbon pollution be captured and stored underground, or injected to extract more oil and natural gas. Such carbon capture technology is not yet commercially available.
By contrast, a new natural gas-fired power plant would meet the new standard without installing additional controls.
"There are areas where they could have made it a lot worse," said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a coalition of power companies. Still, "the numerical limit allows progress for natural gas and places compliance out of reach for coal-fired plants" not planning to capture and sequester carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas.
Steve Miller, CEO and President of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a group of coal-burning electricity producers, took a more dismal view of the proposal.
"The latest rule will make it impossible to build any new coal-fueled power plants and could cause the premature closure of many more coal-fueled power plants operating today," Miller said.

Former NAACP leader C.L. Bryant is accusing Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of “exploiting” the Trayvon Martin tragedy to “racially divide this country.”

“His family should be outraged at the fact that they’re using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions,” Rev. C.L. Bryant said in a Monday interview with The Daily Caller.

The conservative black pastor who was once the chapter president of the Garland, Texas NAACP called Jackson and Sharpton “race hustlers” and said they are “acting as though they are buzzards circling the carcass of this young boy.”

SEOUL — Unaware that a microphone was recording him, President Obama asked outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Monday for breathing room until after Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign to negotiate on missile defense.

“On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it’s important for him to give me space,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Medvedev at the end of their 90-minute meeting, apparently referring to incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Supreme Court this week is hearing arguments about some specific, grave constitutional concerns about Obamacare: most prominently, whether the federal government has the power to order all Americans to purchase health insurance that meets the federal government’s standards. But it is worth taking a few steps back to remind ourselves that while this requirement is an unprecedented infringement on Americans’ liberty, the legislation as a whole — in its conception, not just its details — is an offense against constitutional government. As is much of modern government, and conservatives should not shrink from saying so.

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The Constitution provides few and defined powers to the federal government, as James Madison put it. The precise scope of those powers has always been subject to debate, but that the description does not apply to today’s federal government cannot seriously be denied. The Constitution divides power among the branches of the federal government: But today’s government features countless agencies that combine executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The Constitution’s structure and logic militate against commingling state and federal powers. Today’s government includes vast state-federal spending programs in which the division of responsibility is blurred by design. These are not merely formal deviations from the constitutional template. They subvert its goals of liberty for citizens, accountability for governments, and security for property. What is needed today, then, is not so much the protection of constitutional government as its reclamation. The courts have an indispensable role to play in that project, but it will also necessarily involve shrewd and patient political action.

A student was shot to death at a Mississippi State University residence hall late Saturday night, prompting campus-wide alerts as authorities searched for suspects who fled the scene. The university held a press conference Sunday morning at 10 a.m. to release more details.

Bill Kibler, vice president of student affairs, stated the victim's name is John Sanderson, age 21, from Madison, MS. Sanderson is a first year student at MSU and transferred there from Holmes Community College.

The 911 call was placed at 9:54 p.m. Saturday night, and police arrived at Evans Hall within minutes. The shooting occurred in a first floor dorm room.

Sanderson was transported by ambulance to Oktibbeha County Hospital Regional Medical Center around 10:20 and was declared dead there at around 11:30 p.m.

Evans Hall, which houses about 300 male students, has security cameras at each entrance. That video footage has been downloaded and turned over to police. Dorm residents have to go through three separate key card entrances before reaching a residence room.

Three African American male suspects reportedly fled the scene in a blue Crown Victoria. Authorities believe the suspects fled the campus and probably the city of Starkville. Twenty four students from adjacent rooms were relocated after the shooting primarily to preserve the crime scene. A gun was recovered on campus but authorities did not say where it was found.

Bill Kibler, vice president of student affairs, stated the victim's name is John Sanderson, age 21, from Madison, MS. Sanderson is a first year student at MSU and transferred there from Holmes Community College.

The 911 call was placed at 9:54 p.m. Saturday night, and police arrived at Evans Hall within minutes. The shooting occurred in a first floor dorm room.

Sanderson was transported by ambulance to Oktibbeha County Hospital Regional Medical Center around 10:20 and was declared dead there at around 11:30 p.m.

Evans Hall, which houses about 300 male students, has security cameras at each entrance. That video footage has been downloaded and turned over to police. Dorm residents have to go through three separate key card entrances before reaching a residence room.

Three African American male suspects reportedly fled the scene in a blue Crown Victoria. Authorities believe the suspects fled the campus and probably the city of Starkville. Twenty four students from adjacent rooms were relocated after the shooting primarily to preserve the crime scene. A gun was recovered on campus but authorities did not say where it was found.

The attorney counseling George Zimmerman, who shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin as he was walking home from the store with a bag of Skittles, says if charges are filed, Zimmerman will argue that he acted in self-defense and that Florida's stand-your-ground law applies.

Attorney Craig Sonner said the public is only hearing part of the story, and when all the facts come out, it will be clear that Zimmerman acted in self defense. A grand jury is scheduled to begin hearing the case April 10.

"George Zimmerman suffered a broken nose, and had an injury to the back of his head, he was attacked by Trayvon Martin on that evening," Sonner said. "This was a case of self defense."

When asked why Zimmerman went after Martin, even though a 911 dispatcher told him not to, Sonner said: "Those are questions that will be answered."

President Obama promised to make health care more affordable, but instead he’s done the opposite. The White House and congressional Democrats slipped 20 new taxes into the Obamacare legislation to raise $500 billion to help pay for the new entitlement’s $2.6 trillion cost. It’s now up to the Supreme Court to provide relief.

Mr. Obama claims to want to raise taxes only on “millionaires and billionaires,” but his signature health care law hits the middle class hard. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) analyzed the 2,700-page bill and came up with a comprehensive list of its levies.

“Obama promised no taxes of any kind for those who earn less than $250,000. Obamacare broke that pledge repeatedly,” ATR President Grover Norquist told The Washington Times. “They deliberately hid the taxes and wisely understood that delaying the pain by making the effective date after the election, maybe you could get through the election.”

A federal judge slammed an Obama administration gambit to revoke mountaintop mining permits Friday, saying the EPA invented authority where there was none.

"EPA resorts to magical thinking" to justify nullifying permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Arch Coal Inc.'s Mingo Logan mine in West Virginia, wrote U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C.

Berman Jackson said the EPA's effort to revoke permits already issued by the Army Corps lacked the backing of any statutory provision or regulation. "It posits a scenario involving the automatic self-destruction of a written permit issued by an entirely separate federal agency after years of study and consideration," the opinion says.

"Poof! Not only is this nonrevocation revocation logistically complicated," the ruling said, but it also robs industry of the only way they can possibly measure compliance with the Clean Water Act - a permit.

EPA ignored the effect that granting itself the right to revoke Army Corps permits could cause uncertainty and financial harm to industries dependent on capital credit for projects involving waterways.

"EPA brushed these objections away by characterizing them as hyperbole," the judge wrote. "Even if the gloomy prophesies are somewhat overstated," the concerns are real, she said.

Berman called the EPA's interpretation of the Clean Water Act - which she separately lambasts for being poorly written - "illogical and impractical."

Arch Coal spokeswoman Kim Link said the company is happy with the ruling. "We're pleased the district court has ruled in our favor - confirming that our Spruce No. 1 permit remains valid," Link said.

Environmental groups were dismayed with the ruling.

"We are deeply disappointed and concerned about the effect of today's court ruling because mountaintop removal mining has already caused widespread and extreme destruction to the mountains, waters, and communities of Appalachia," said a coalition of environmental groups in a statement Friday. "The Spruce No. 1 Mine permit, in particular, was one of the largest mountaintop removal permits ever proposed in Appalachia, and it is located in an area of West Virginia that has already been devastated by several large mountaintop removal mines."

"We urge the EPA to appeal today's ruling and continue to exercise its full authority under the Clean Water Act to protect waterways and communities," the environmentalists said.

EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:37 p.m. on March 23, 2012.

"Despite numerous attempts by Republicans to compel the president to approve the Keystone permit, Americans are still left with a 1,179-mile (1,897-km) gap between the oil resources and this southern portion of the pipeline," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, referring to the full Keystone XL project.

Democrats and their supporters have been fundraising, campaigning and lobbying on the idea that Republicans are engaged in a “war on women.”

The vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, however, alleges that it is the Democrats who are “waging a war on reality.”

“Democrats know that Republicans won the women’s vote in 2010,” Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in an interview with The Daily Caller. “It was the first time in modern history that Republicans won the women’s vote and the Democrats know that in order to win the presidency, in order to win the House or the Senate, they can’t let that stand. They are desperate and they are manufacturing this war on women. It’s a hoax.”

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday said Republicans should give President Barack Obama another term if Santorum isn’t the GOP nominee and for a second day compared rival Mitt Romney to an Etch A Sketch toy.

Santorum reiterated an argument he has made before: The former Massachusetts governor is not conservative enough to offer voters a clear choice in the fall election and that only he can provide that contrast.

Mr. Irrelevant is the term given to the last player selected in the NFL draft, a reflection of the long odds he faces in making an NFL roster. Increasingly, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) has become the Mr. Irrelevant in the GOP race for the presidential nomination.

Gingrich won’t get out of the race, but he won’t fight for the nomination either. He has limited himself to competing here and there so that he can make an increasingly bizarre, out-of-touch primary night speech about his vision and his prospects.

If you don’t compete in Illinois and finish a weak fourth there (behind even Texas Rep. Ron Paul) after a weak third in Ohio (where you received 15 percent of the vote), you really aren’t a factor for the GOP nomination. It’s as simple as that. Oh, and you don’t deserve to have the cable networks cover your speeches, either.

A little more than a month ago in this space, I asked, “Just How Much Does Gingrich Hate Romney?” The answer now seems pretty obvious: not as much as he loves running for president.
Gingrich’s exit a few weeks ago might not have benefited Rick Santorum enough to help the former Pennsylvania Senator overtake Mitt Romney, but at least a two-person contest would have offered the GOP a clean, clear choice. Now, it’s getting too late for a possible one-on-one race to matter.

The only hope for the anti-Romney forces now seems to be a credentials fight, which certainly could still occur. While Florida was penalized for jumping into the early primary/caucus window, it also violated party rules by assigning delegates on a winner-take-all basis, so a credentials fight over that easily could occur.

That’s one reason Romney needs to wrap up the nomination sooner rather than later. Not only would a credentials fight make the party’s internal division even deeper and more difficult to heal, it could be a problem for the former Massachusetts governor if he is well short of the delegates he needs to lock up the nomination.

Still, the division in the GOP ranks shows no sign of healing soon. Romney continues to run well among upscale voters, non-evangelicals, less conservative Republicans and those who live in urban and suburban areas. He still is faring poorly among rural voters, the most conservative Republicans and evangelicals. It has been that way in almost every state, and there is nothing he can do about it. Nothing.

Romney has spent four years insisting that he is conservative, but nobody believes him.

It is no surprise that evangelical conservatives don’t believe him, but it’s noteworthy that Romney’s own supporters also don’t believe him.

That’s why his supporters are still supporting him after months, even years, of Romney trying to position himself to the right. Romney supporters figure that all of his conservative rhetoric on social issues and immigration is just a play for conservative voters in the primary, so they ignore it and figure he’ll be a mainstream, business conservative as the GOP nominee. And that suits them just fine.

The next big event I’m watching for isn’t the next primary but the next NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Since the late February/early March NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll came out showing the “right track” poll number continuing to grow and the president’s job approval hitting 50 percent, three other surveys — ABC News/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times and Fox News — have come out showing a very different trend.

All three were conducted only a week or so after the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey.
In all three, President Barack Obama’s numbers were softening, not strengthening, and he looked to be in worse shape for the general election.

If the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll confirms what the other three showed, it’s obviously terrible news for the White House.

Most observers have assumed that a growing economy would improve the president’s re-election prospects (dramatically if the improvement in unemployment and consumer confidence were strong enough), but weaker Obama numbers in the face of better economic numbers — possibly made irrelevant by higher gas prices and talk of a war in the Middle East — would suggest that opposition to the president is quicker to harden than previously thought.

While Democrats can take advantage of the GOP’s poor image and of Romney’s wealth and stiffness to portray the general election as a fight for the middle class against the rich, Romney is still best positioned to make the election a referendum on Obama, on the president’s performance over the past four years and on the public’s confidence (or lack of confidence) about the results of a second Obama term.

Given that the 2012 presidential contest still looks as if it will turn on the decisions of swing voters in 10 states, November’s results are not at all a foregone conclusion.
Correction: My last column on the prospects of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) incorrectly stated that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal endorsed Mitt Romney after Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s exit from the GOP race. In fact, Jindal has not endorsed any candidate since Perry left the race.